It will also expedite Pakistan towards industrialization and modernization. It is expected that a formal groundbreak­ing ceremony of Rashakai Special Eco­nomic Zone (SEZ), the first project for implementation of industrial coopera­tion under the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), will be held soon.

With increasingly concrete progress having been made in the development of the CPEC, a flagship project of “Belt and Road Initiative” (BRI), the focus of corridor development will gradually transit from infrastructure construction to industrial development under full dis­cussion and consultation between China and Pakistan.

Quoting Cheng Xizhong, China Econom­ic Net said that on top of everything else, it should be fully recognized that the con­struction of the 22 energy and transpor­tation infrastructure projects in the first phase of the CPEC has created favourable conditions for the comprehensive devel­opment of Pakistan, including SEZs.

As the development of the CPEC gains momentum in the second phase, espe­cially with the construction of the SEZs, new changes are expected to take place in Pakistan. In his comments, Cheng Xizhong, the development of the SEZs in cultivating scale economy by mass production and enhancing export of in­dustrial products will bring a lot of fi­nancial interests to Pakistan.